The growing complexity of modern software systems increases the difficulty of ensuring the overall dependability of software-intensive systems. Complexity of environments, in which systems operate, high dependability requirements that systems have to meet, as well as the complexity of infrastructures on which they rely make system design a true engineering challenge.

Mastering system complexity requires design techniques that support clear thinking and rigorous validation and verification. Formal design methods help to achieve this. Coping with complexity also requires architectures that are tolerant of faults and of unpredictable changes in environment. This issue can be
addressed by fault-tolerant design techniques. Therefore, there is a clear need of methods enabling rigorous modelling and development of complex fault-tolerant systems.
This book addresses such acute Issues in developing fault-tolerant systems as:
- Verification and refinement of fault-tolerant systems
- Integrated approaches to developing fault-tolerant systems
- Formal foundations for error detection, error recovery, exception and fault handling
- Abstractions, styles and patterns for rigorous development of fault tolerance
- Fault-tolerant software architectures
- Development and application of tools supporting rigorous design of dependable systems
- Integrated platforms for developing dependable systems
- Rigorous approaches to specification and design of fault tolerance in novel computing systems